John McCook, 82, and Jerry Lacy, 90, were spotted taking a leisurely stroll together in Los Angeles earlier this week, continuing a friendship that has spanned decades despite the two actors never appearing on screen together.
McCook has played wealthy fashion designer Eric Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful since the soap opera premiered in March 1987, a run of 39 years. Lacy, who is eight years older, is best known for playing five distinct roles across more than 100 episodes of the gothic television serial Dark Shadows between 1967 and 1971.
During the outing, McCook appeared to be making a point while waving an arm as Lacy listened.
McCook's decades on The Bold and the Beautiful
As Eric Forrester, McCook created the Los Angeles-based fashion house Forrester Creations on the show. Forrester's romances and love triangles have driven the series since it began nearly four decades ago.
His character's relationship with Stephanie Forrester, played by Susan Flannery, formed the show's foundation until Stephanie's death. Flannery retired from acting after her character died in 2012, went on to work as a director and later moved to Australia.
Forrester's overlapping romances with Beth Logan, played over the years by Judith Baldwin, Nancy Burnett, Marla Adams and Robin Riker, and with Beth's daughter Brooke, played by Katherine Kelly Lang, caused friction with his son Ridge, played by Ronn Moss and later Thorsten Kaye, who was also involved with Brooke. Viewers also watched Forrester tolerate the villainous Sheila Carter, played by Kimberlin Brown, who targeted family members with her poisonous schemes.
McCook won his first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2022, after three previous nominations.
'I have no reason to leave'
McCook has said he has no plans to leave The Bold and the Beautiful. "I just love being there," he told TV Insider last year, dismissing rumors he might depart. "I am not going to leave. I have no reason to leave."
"When you get to be my age, and you're an actor, and you're still working, why would I walk away, right? I mean, really?" he said. "I figured that I'm never going to retire or quit."
McCook said that outlook suits his wife of 46 years, former actress Laurette Spang, just fine. "I will just sit here one day, and they're going to call Laurette, and say, 'He's dead, come get him.'"
McCook got his start in a production of West Side Story. He played Lance Prentiss on The Young and the Restless from October 1975 to February 1980, leaving when the show switched to an hourly format. He has also performed in musical theater and had guest roles in primetime series including Acapulco H.E.A.T.
Lacy's roles on Dark Shadows
Lacy is well recognized among cult TV fans and soap opera enthusiasts. Of the roles he played on Dark Shadows, fans' favorite is the fanatical witch-hunter Reverend Trask, who had a reputation for persecuting innocent young women and sending them to the gallows. His other roles on the show, Tony Peterson, Reverend Gregory Trask, Mr Trask and Lamar Trask, all had some blood connection to the Salem charlatan Reverend Trask.
Lacy played Humphrey Bogart in Woody Allen's 1972 comedy-romance Play It Again, Sam opposite Diane Keaton, and played the same character in the Broadway production from February 1969 to March 1970.
Lacy's other film and TV roles
Lacy also starred on The Young and the Restless as Jonas from 1979 to 1982. In the 1970s he appeared in the films The House of Dark Shadows, The Money and Blood Bath. He went on to appear in soaps including As the World Turns, Love of Life, The Secret Storm and The Young and the Restless.
Lacy has been married to actress Julia Duffy since 1984, after the two met on the set of Love of Life. They have two children, daughter Kerry, 40, and son Daniel, who took his own life at age 29 in April 2019.
Lacy appeared alongside Duffy on Designing Women as the fiancé of her character Allison Sugarbaker, and he wrote an episode of Duffy's other comedy hit, Newhart. He has guest-starred on primetime shows including McCloud, Eight is Enough, The White Shadow, Knots Landing, Saved By the Bell and Hardball.
Despite his many roles, Lacy has said his favorite remains the 1790s-era Reverend Trask on Dark Shadows. In a 2020 interview with a Dark Shadows podcaster, he called the character "the purest" and most idealistic character he played on the show, describing it as "pure drama" and "mustache twirling at its best."
